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Aventura La Rijana - Drift

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Once again the time had came for another dive for the Palombaris and just like last week, this week's scuba adventure was taking place beyond Calahonda, but before Playa La Rijana, the site from last week. The dive was due to occur in Calahiguera, but before we got there, we had meet up in Calahonda at the Buceo con Air Dive centre, just like we had done last week before continuing onwards. Upon arriving at the sight, with one look at the water and we all know the dive wouldn't be possible, so we modified the dive plan and selected a new dive destination, which was La Rijana, so off we went and by the time we got down to the little spot of paradise, although the water still looked bad and was picking up, we decided screw it, our gear was done, we had travelled some distance, we were going to get wet no matter what, it was time to gear up.

With the sea conditions getting worse, the five of us, Javi, Helena, Michael, Ashleigh, my PADI Junior Open Water diver sister and myself were preparing our equipment quit hurridly, but still assembled correctly with no errors and hurried into our suits before making our way down the gradual slope to the sea front and across the beautiful shore, until at long last we had reached the end of the beach and turned into the water. The sky was a bright shade of blue and a slight chill could be detected, as for the wind, it could clearly be felt, but we didn't pay it too much attention as we slid our masks over our hoods and popped the fins on before swimming out on our backs like we did last time, right up to the point where we reached the perfect spot to descend and sunk below the surface.

Even at the start of the dive, a current could be felt but it wasn't too strong and now was it pulling us out to Sea, so there was no problems there, as for visibility, there was plenty of disturbed sediment and plantation that had broke away that limited the field of vision, but not too much for we could still make each other out in the water and see our surrounding environment perfectly. Javi was leading the dive once again with Helena as his dive partner, my brother & sister were behind them and I on the other hand had no dive buddy and was to bring up the rear, although at various points in the dive I was actually between the two groups due to my brother passing every few minutes to take multiple photos and what with my younger sister sticking by his side, I would have to watch them and the other group to make sure Javi & Helena don't disappear.

Going along in the water we swam out like we did the last time, but stopped short at an opening in the rocks that formed a perfect little passage, so one at a time we deflated our BCD's and swam through, except for my sister, she didn't swim through it but was caught by the current and glided straight through the opening and emerged on the other side perfectly fine, I however who was last to past through, had waited for the current to push through once again before swimming against it as it pulled back, I didn't fancy taking a leaf out of my sister's books. Now on the other side, we turned off to the right and continued round the cliff face, whilst at the same time still playing in the current as we worked through more tunnels and holes, but I squeezed through them alright, as did the others.

At 14 minutes into the dive we had arrived back at the spot we had started the dive from, there was me hoping that the dive wasn't over, not yet, I was really enjoying the drift dive, they can be great fun, and working through the tunnels & passages made it all the more better, so when Javi indicated that we were going back out, I was feeling very relieved, the dive was going to continue, as was the fun. This time we went further out then we just did but not as far as we did the other week due to air depleting faster what with the heavier breathing due to the playing in the surf, but we did dive deeper then last time and just like last time, we swam through that great spot that is the Valley of the Naudibranchs a few times.

Now although we didn't actually see anything new this time around, regarding marine life, for me this dive was all about the terrain of the underwater environment and the water conditions, I'm a lover of aquatic animals, but I'm also a love of dives and drift diving has quite an appeal to me, so this whole dive was great, quite a number of divers might have been put off by the conditions, but not for us five, we took it on the chin and went into the water, where we had some great fun doing something we all enjoyed, so my only disappointing moment with the whole scuba adventure was when we were all running low and had to return back to shore., I hate ending the dive, I've always had done, but at least I was surrounded by friends and family as we left the water, packed up all of our gear, got dried, slipped back into our clothes and then lastly we went for a well needed drink to toast the dive. So we may not have done Calahiguera this week, but in my opinion, Playa La Rijana was the dive site to be this week.

DIVE STATS: - (11-03-12)

Dive number: 106 Dive site: La Rijana

Maximum Depth: 14.6 metres Dive Duration: 45 mins

Beginning air: 190 barFinishing air: 80 bar

Start time: 11: 03 End time: 11:48

Temperature: 12°c Weight: 6 kilos

End of a Palombari Adventure

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